He also rejected allegations of being a vote cutter and cleared the air about his fallout with the Akhilesh Yadav-led party.
'In order to stop the BJP actually, you need a party that changes the discourse rather than positing another pole for polarising it further. The answer to this kind of politics lies in refocusing the agenda on development'
Chidambaram, who is the Congress' senior election observer for the assembly polls next year, asserted that the Trinamool Congress' entry into Goa "appears to be an imposition from the top that is based in West Bengal" and said he does not know the Mamata Banerjee-led party's motive in trying to start a unit in Goa by "encouraging defections" from other parties.
Chaudhary, who took 13 hours to reach Lakhimpur Kheri from Delhi, several hours more than it would take to cover the 420 km-odd distance, also met the families of some of the farmer victims to learn their story of loss.
Lalpura, who took over as the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) chairperson last week, asserted that his priority would be to dispel 'false narratives' fuelling insecurity among minorities.
"If they (some leaders) persist (with G-23) that means there is a vested interest for a few of them to work against the Congress party which we don't subscribe to and rather oppose it," the former Union minister said.
He also said the governments of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the BSP and the SP that have ruled Uttar Pradesh in the last 32 years, when Congress was not in power, failed to live up to the expectations of the people and the Congress was set for a comeback in the state.
"If I was the foreign minister, I would have had contact with them. I would have gone out of my way and told my intelligence agency to make a contact quietly," former external affairs minister Natwar Singh said.
Former Indian diplomats on Monday termed the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan as a "setback" for India strategically, and asserted that the priority for New Delhi right now should be to evacuate its citizens from the war-torn nation.
Tharoor put the blame for the logjam in Parliament on BJP and accused the saffron party of reducing the "temple of democracy to a rubber stamp for its agenda or worse, a notice board to announce its unilateral decisions".
The former Union minister said the population debate is 'utterly misplaced' and half a century out-of-date as a large majority of Indian states have achieved replacement levels of fertility.
Ajay Kumar Lallu said the party has emerged as the main challenger to the "oppressive" UP government and the 'winds of change' were blowing in the state.
Amid signs of chill in Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan's ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav on Sunday reached out to him for aligning with the Opposition, saying he can carry forward his father Ram Vilas Paswan's legacy only by joining the 'existential fight' against Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologue M S Golwalkar's thoughts.
"All you have to do is to put the picture of (UP Chief Minister) Yogi (Adityanath) in front of you and Priyanka Gandhi's picture and you won't need to ask any more questions," said Khurshid, who is the chief of the party's manifesto committee for the state.
The senior Congress leader asserted that those calling for reform should have had a discussion with others as well.
Kapil Sibal, a prominent member of the Congress's group of 23 leaders who wrote to party chief Sonia Gandhi seeking organisational overhaul last year, on Thursday slammed fellow letter signatory Jitin Prasada for crossing over to the Bharatiya Janata Party and said it represented politics of "prasada" or personal gains.
Alleging that Prasada had placed "personal ambition" over everything else, Moily said the Uttar Pradesh leader's ideological commitment was suspect from the beginning and the party winning zero seats in West Bengal under his charge showed that he was incompetent.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the Congress general secretary in-charge Uttar Pradesh, has lashed out against the Yogi Adityanath dispensation in its handling of the second wave, saying it has ceased to act as a protector and support system for the people in the state.
'The Modi government's lack of foresight has compelled India to become an importer of vaccines today and even now, their "vaccine strategy is flawed and discriminatory'
The Congress MP from Sivaganga also slammed the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance and said the people of Tamil Nadu do not want a government which has any "stain, scent or shadow" of the BJP as its 'Hindi-Hindutva' agenda "irritates" them.
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